Notre Dame Football: Will top 2018 recruits make big splashes?

4. Kevin Austin

Of course, Austin’s impact on this season will depend somewhat on who’s throwing him the passes. Because as last year showed, any receiver can put up subpar numbers when the quarterback has trouble finding them.

That said, Austin comes in as Notre Dame’s second-ranked recruit of 2018 (No. 82 nationally) and has the makings of a monster outside at wide receiver.

When you watch him, you’ll note that he doesn’t look that fast, especially in terms of short area quickness. But when he finds himself in the open field, those long strides eat up tons of ground really fast.

And for a tall, lanky kid (6’4”, ~190 pounds), he’s slippery after the catch.

Speaking of the catch…this kid catches everything.

He jumps over people and highpoints the football, catches in traffic over the middle and tracks the deep ball well.

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Just put the ball in his general vicinity and watch him do what he does. If he shows that off at camp, why can’t he see the field quickly? With Equanimeous St. Brown off to the NFL and Kevin Stepherson running himself out of town, there are snaps to be had.

Perhaps more so than either of the first three players mentioned, Allen’s path to playing time is wide open.